Why I Oughta...

The fourth piece of this little newly planted bed section on the southside of the property are a trio of Autumn Ferns.  First, I transplanted 15 green hostas .  Then, I planted a dwarf Japanese Maple Tamukeyama tree and just yesterday, I posted photos of three Dolce Apple Twist Heucheras .  All in the same section.  Dryopteris erythosora is the cultivar of these Autumn Ferns that I planted from 1# nursery containers that you can see below.  I bought these at Home Depot and thought they'd be a nice fern diversity away from Ostrich Ferns. The Missouri Botanical Garden has a nice listing for these - and mentions that they have a Japanese-gardening-related name: Japanese Shield Fern.   Dryopteris erythrosora , commonly called Japanese shield fern or autumn fern, is an arching, evergreen (semi-evergreen in cold winter climates) fern that grows in a vase-shaped clump to 2' tall and as wide. It is native to woodland hillsides and mountain slopes in Japan, China and Taiwan. New frond

Yesterday, I posted some photos of our new Japanese Maple tree and included in those photos was a brief look at three of these Dolce Apple Twist Heucheras that I bought at the same time.  Again...not planned - which may have been a mistake - but also, I bought three (not one!).  Here's a look at the 1# nursery pots that they came in: And here's a look at the back of the plant tag showing the height (10") and spacing (20") and a description of the colors (changes with the seasons).  It was their color (chartreuse) that drew me to them thinking that they'll be a nice contrast against some other items in this section. I planted these three in a row on the new border - just outside of the Japanese Tamukeyama Maple and surrounded by some transplanted hostas.  These (below) are the first four of the (ultimate) 15 hostas that I transplanted and posted about last week.  Also, on the left are a few ferns - some of the items listed as companion plants on the tag.  More on t

I've posted quite a bit about Japanese gardening and Japanese-inspired gardening over the years on the blog and dedicated a whole post last year to talking about Japanese Maple trees .  Well, the impulse to buy one got the best of me and I came home with a new tree for the yard.  This is the second tree planted this year - the first was the bareroot Shagbark Hickory .  This post is about the second:  a Tamukeyama Japanese Maple tree that I bought at Home Depot.  Here's the tag from this tree: And here's the tree as it stood pre-planting: Here it is in context pre-planting: And, the price:  $69.98 with a Menards-matching 11% rebate bringing the total for this tree down to $62.28.   This tree is a dwarf tree - and stays small.  I was drawn to it being 'medium-sized' in nature and thought it could play a nice role in the layering by being in the 'in between' area behind the border plants and in front of the larger shrubs in the back.  It is weeping and lace-l

 In the order of operations for this Spring, I continue down my transplanting plan.  First were the Fanal Astilbes that I moved out to the edge of the bed.  Then, I divided and transplanted 15 hostas in a border .  Today, posting a photo showing three newly transplanted All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses.  I planted six of them back here in the Fall and they all came back this Spring.  With this new bed created (and extended), I took three that were in the back and moved them up to the front edge of the bed - that you can see in the photo below: If I come across more of these grasses this year, I'm thinking I can use a couple of them on either side of these three to create a nice grass border.  I planted them far enough back to account for a full-size adult grass to live within the bed.  Posting this in early May, but I did this work on April 24, 2021.

Yesterday, I posted a photo showing the new location of the dozen Fanal Astilbes that I transplanted out to the edge of their new bed and commented that that was the FIRST of a few posts showing the transplanting that I have been doing this Spring.   Today, the photo below shows the new location of 15 teardown hostas that I planted on the southside of the yard in the curved border of this new bed.  You can see the first three on the left taking the 'second row' spot and if you look closely, there are two more in the 'second row' under the Oak tree at the top of the photo: Here's an annotated version of that photo showing the 15 hostas: A few important notes: 1. These hostas are (I'm pretty sure) Lanifolia Hostas .  Based on this "What hosta do I have?" page , I found this Lancifolia page in the Hosta Library.  Things check out.  I inherited them when we moved in.  They're plain green with glossy leaves.  2.  They get to a nice size - if left alone

Now that we've set the final edges of our backyard beds using the notion of curvilinear design/layout , I'm able to begin to transplant some of the items that I have on hand to put them in their final spots - closer to the edges of these new final beds.  The first set that I took on were the dozen Fanal Astilbe plants that I planted last year.  I was happy to see that all twelve came back this Spring and below you can see the twelve holes where I transplanted them further out.  You can see in the photo below the pole of the bird feeder and some of the pink circles.  So, these are moving up about 24" but also not TOO CLOSE to the edge of the bed to be sure they have some room to spread out. This is the first of a bunch of transplants - including hostas, ferns and grasses that I'll be making in the next week or two ahead of mulch.  As a reminder (to myself) that I laid out an 'order of operations' with my beds this year - that starts with removing the Automowe

This marks the 53rd tree that I've planted on our property since we planted our first one on Earth Day 2017.  This was a tiny, bareroot tree that we picked up from the Environmental Club from Benet Academy.  They were giving away tiny trees for their Earth Day project.  There were a couple of Oak trees to choose from (Burr and Pin) and this Shagbark Hickory.  You can see the little tree in the photo below that measures close to 36" tall including all the roots.  That's about 24" below the ground and about 12" above ground.   The roots were wrapped in newspaper and then in plastic.  I removed the packaging, straightened out some of the roots and planted in in the bed - not far from the fence - in amongst the hydrangeas on the south side of the backyard.   Here is the Shagbark Hickory as it stands now: I'm not getting too attached to this little tree, but I'll give it some water and a little bit of food and see what happens. As for the full list of trees, h